Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are comets and asteroids that have been nudged by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets into orbits that allow them to enter the Earth’s neighborhood. Composed mostly of water ice with embedded dust particles, comets originally formed in the cold outer planetary system, while most of the rocky asteroids formed in the warmer inner solar system between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
The scientific interest in comets and asteroids is due largely to their status as the relatively unchanged debris from the solar system formation process some 4.6 billion years ago. The giant outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) formed from an agglomeration of billions of comets, and the left over bits and pieces from this process are the comets we see today. Likewise, today’s asteroids are the bits and pieces left over from the initial agglomeration of the inner planets that include Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. Quote by CNEOS.
Planetary defense is the term used to encompass all the capabilities needed to detect and warn of potential asteroid or comet impacts with Earth, and to prevent and mitigate their possible effects.
The 2023 NEO Campaign, “Look-Up Is an Asteroid”
The Greenbelt Observatory NEO Observation Program partnered with the International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC) for a special asteroid search campaign during February and March 2023. Our team was selected from the hundreds of teams worldwide that apply annually to participate in the Find an Asteroid search campaign. Each year, 1000 teams from more than eighty countries participate. Since October 2006, over 1500 asteroids have been discovered; fifty-two of these have been numbered by the International Astronomical Union (Paris). Numbered asteroids are recorded in the world’s official minor planet catalog and can sometimes be named by their amateur discoverers.
NEO Program Leaders
Program Director
Program Coordinator
Search Campaign Instructions
Our team received telescopic images only hours old and taken along the ecliptic. Using the Astrometrica software, they accurately measured the time and position of asteroids moving in the background. These measurements are then reported to the IASC.
Weather permitting, each team receives twenty-five unique sets of images during the campaign. Team members can download each image set and search them for asteroids just hours after they have been taken along the celestial ecliptic at the University of Hawaii (Pan-STARRS).
Teams use the Astrometrica software, with IASC teachers who have participated in asteroid search campaigns. They are available through the website to answer questions by email and help with learning how to properly use the software.
How to Join Our “Look-Up Is an Asteroid” Team
We hope to be part of another Find an Asteroid campaign in the near future. For more information about the NEO Detection Program activities and future events, please email Nancy C Wolfson.